Posted on 28th April 2025

Giving the MG TF a spring face-lift

Crater-like dents and hazy paint adorn my MG TF's paintwork with the occasional rust patch bubbling up to the surface.

It was hard to tell from a distance but those front wings are rusting away around the lip of the wheel arch

But here was the true state of one the worst of the two front wings!

Suffice to say it was bought as a cheap fun project that runs and may never be what others would call a 'show' car, whatever that may be.

But there are a few things I have recently done to make it more presentable.

Slowing down the progress of rust is always high on my agenda as someone who has owned plenty of aging cars in the past that have suffered from it.

Last year I spent a day inspecting the bodywork and briefly treated the worst affected areas. But front wheel arches (which thankfully are part of the bolt-on wing panels) started going crusty - so much so that I was concerned if left by the time the next MOT comes around it would fail purely because of the jagged / sharp edges that are appearing around the lip of the arch.

I managed to get hold of some cheap second hand front wings last year when they became available with a view to painting and fitting them. So that's what I decided to do this spring. At the same time it's the ideal opportunity to deal with the worst bubbling of the paint due to creeping rust at the front of the sill on the driver's side (where it meets the front wing).

So over the period of a few weeks I sanded the 'new' front wings, removed any minor rust and painted them up with the best quality aerosol spray paint cans I could find. I also sanded back the front of the sill, applied some more rust converter / encapsulator (trying a different product to last year this time), and painted it too. I took a bit more time doing the job this year in the hope the repair will last a little longer this time.

Thankfully the rust on the sill was not bad enough to create holes yet. Most of the rust sanded out quickly with a course grit sandpaper on an orbital sander and a dremel-like rotary tool. It is only a matter of time before this section will need welding, but for now it's not bad enough to need the 'sparkly spanner'.

While the old wings were off I cleaned the mud collected behind the wheel arch liner and squirted some lanolin-based grease into the sills using a spray can with an 'injection lance' to help protect against rust forming on the inside of the sill panels.

I failed miserably to avoid ruining my half-decent paint job before I even fitted the wings to the car by knocking them over in the garage. Fortunately the scratches weren't too bad and have since polished out.

I've gotten much better at 'rattle can' paint touch ups over the years but it simply isn't possible to get it looking as good as someone with professional kit and skill can. But that's the nice thing about all the other imperfections that remain - it doesn't really matter. Overall the improvement in the look of it is more than enough for me and suits the general condition and mileage of the car.

Lastly, to complete the tidy up of the front-end I applied two MG badge insert stickers with a black and chrome colour scheme. I thought they would be an easy way to smarten up the original badges and subtely change the look of them, as they had deteriorated to the point it was hard to determine the make of the car from the badge at all! Of course, sticking them on and standing back looking at the car was the most satisfying part and also the most noticable aspect of this transformation in how it looks.

Now it's time to stop messing with the car and get out and enjoy it a bit I think.

(which is exactly what I've done since writing this with a long trip to this year's 'Pride of Longbridge' event, as you can see below!)